Malian

Mali’s military junta leader, Colonel Assimi Goita, on Tuesday, demanded an end to potentially crippling economic sanctions imposed after last month’s coup in the poor Sahel state.

Sivasspor have announced the signing of Olarenwaju Kayode on loan from Shakhtar Donetsk for the 2020-21 season.

Eighty-three migrants were saved last week after their smugglers abandoned them in the Sahara desert in northern Niger, the International Organisation for Migration said on Tuesday.

Mali’s army, which staged last month’s coup in the war-torn nation, is taking on a role in politics despite being hamstrung by a crippling lack of resources.

The 44th Ordinary Meeting of the Mediation and Security Council of the Economic Community of West African States has called attention to the ongoing insurgency in Nigeria, Gambia and Guinea Bissau as well as the political crisis in Mali.

Talks in Mali about a transition back to civilian rule following last month’s military coup got off to a chaotic start on Saturday as opponents of the deposed president accused the ruling junta of excluding them from some of the negotiations.

Mali’s military junta will hold meetings on Saturday to discuss its promised transition to civilian rule after mounting pressure from neighbours to yield power in the weeks since it overthrew the nation’s leader.

Former Malian president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, who has not been seen in public since his August 18 ouster in a coup, has been hospitalised after suffering a brief stroke-like attack, a doctor said Wednesday.

Global coronavirus cases surged past 25 million on Sunday, according to a Reuters tally, as India marked a worldwide record for daily new cases in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mali’s military junta on Saturday postponed the first meeting on the transfer of power after rising tensions with the group that sparked the August 18 coup.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Malian military junta have reached an agreement on the transition programme.

Talks between West African mediators and Mali’s military coup leaders ended on Monday after three days of discussions without any decision on the make-up of a transitional government, a junta spokesman said.

Nigerian Gbemisola Ijigbamigbe’s right leg was virtually paralysed after she contracted wild polio aged 11 months. Now the 28-year-old leads an active life as a wheelchair basketball player and also enjoys swimming and kayaking.

A West African delegation visiting Mali to push for a speedy return to civilian rule following a coup said it was "very hopeful" on Saturday after meeting with the country's military junta and the president it ousted.

Four Malian soldiers were killed and one seriously injured on Saturday when an explosive device detonated as their vehicle drove by in the centre of the country, a military source told AFP.

West African leaders under the regional bloc ECOWAS have said they would dispatch envoys to Mali to help secure “the return of constitutional order”.

Mali’s junta headed by Army colonel Assimi Goita which seized power in a coup on Tuesday has begun to meet with senior opposition politicians in the country.

President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday, faulted the development in Mali which led to the military toppling the government of President Ibrahim Keita.

President Muhammadu Buhari Thursday in Abuja joined ECOWAS Heads of State and Governments in calling for immediate release of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita of Mali, and a return to Constitutional order in the country.

Malians welcome the recent military coup and hope that the power will finally be handed down to a civilian government, a member of workers’ trade union, Diawara Zainab Sidibe, told Sputnik.

Army colonel Assimi Goita has been introduced as Mali's new military strongman after a mutiny forced President Boubacar Keita out of power.

President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta has resigned. He announced this in a televised address on Tuesday, as the coup in Mali unravelled.